DATES
Sun 18 May 2 – 3pm
Slow Burn Books and Further Reading present a conversation on decentralised design practice in the Asia-Pacific region, chaired by Januar Rianto (Further Reading, Indonesia), with Melbourne-based design practitioners Zenobia Ahmed and Thy Hà in a discussion on inter-cultural design and typography in Southeast Asian and Australian contexts and their political possibilities.
Participants
Slow Burn Books
Slow Burn Books is an art book publisher and bookshop with a focus on Asia and its diaspora. A project by artist-curator Nikki Lam and designer Scott Heinrich, we are dedicated to connecting Asian artists, writers and publishers with Australian audiences. Since launching at the Melbourne Art Book Fair in 2020, Slow Burn Books has developed an expansive collection of independent Asian titles that are relevant, experimental and curious.
Further Reading
Further Reading is an independent multi-format publishing platform with a production and distribution unit. We seek to engage in discourse within design practices by exploring the wider contexts through various programmed experiences, such as online publications, printed periodicals, pop-ups, and workshops.
Januar Rianto
Januar Rianto works at the intersection of design, education, and popular culture as a designer, editor, and publisher. He runs Each Other Company, a creative and brand consultancy, and Further Reading, a publishing platform and risograph studio. His practice primarily navigates the peripheries of design, aiming to cultivate criticality—both towards design as a discipline and the subjects it explores—by embodying design as a way of seeing and as a framework.
Thy Hà
Thy Hà is a Vietnamese UX/UI and type designer from Sài Gòn, now based in Naarm/Melbourne. She creates digital experiences for the education, culture, and public sectors, and runs Mai Type, a practice focused on developing Vietnamese-localised typefaces. Her work brings together cultural identity, digital media, and typographic history to create inclusive, context-rich designs that challenge Western-centric norms.
Zenobia Ahmed
Zenobia Ahmed is a book designer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her practice spans research, writing, design and publishing – centered in a space of communal learning, organising, facilitating, and care.